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Friday 20 February 2009
Graduates wishing for job ‘offer’ come a-calling at temples
Beleaguered university graduates are turning to Guangzhou’s temples of the reclining Buddha to boost their dim job prospects in the hope that a homonym will give them an edge in the labour market.
Graduates wishing for job ‘offer’ come a-calling at temples
Fiona Tam 12 February 2009
Beleaguered university graduates are turning to Guangzhou’s temples of the reclining Buddha to boost their dim job prospects in the hope that a homonym will give them an edge in the labour market.
Spurred on by the fact that the Cantonese and Putonghua pronunciations for the reclining Buddha figure - wo fo - are near-homonyms for the English word “offer”, graduates clutching resumes and incense had poured into the temples and prayed for decent jobs, the Nanfang Daily reported yesterday.
One woman said she felt helpless after trying everything to secure a job, and visiting temples was a comfort to her. “We need a blessing from Buddha after sparing no effort at the job fairs. You have to be that lucky to get a job,” she was quoted as saying.
Another graduate said his roommate claimed the reclining Buddha had helped him get a job.
Graduates say companies have stopped recruiting since the start of the financial crisis, and they also have to compete with the large numbers of experienced but laid-off workers.
The daily said well-educated students also bought Buddha statues and incantations from temples to boost their causes.
Staff from Guangzhou temples said more graduates prayed there, many for the first time, for a job during the Lunar New Year. They said that while some young people did not know basic religious protocol, all were deeply worried.
Psychologists said graduates were not visiting the temples out of faith but as a way to ease their anxiety about unemployment. They urged such people to seek counselling.
Authorities estimated more than a million graduates, half of them from other provinces, were vying for jobs in Guangdong. At least 2.5 million graduates across the mainland failed to find work in the past three years.
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Graduates wishing for job ‘offer’ come a-calling at temples
Fiona Tam
12 February 2009
Beleaguered university graduates are turning to Guangzhou’s temples of the reclining Buddha to boost their dim job prospects in the hope that a homonym will give them an edge in the labour market.
Spurred on by the fact that the Cantonese and Putonghua pronunciations for the reclining Buddha figure - wo fo - are near-homonyms for the English word “offer”, graduates clutching resumes and incense had poured into the temples and prayed for decent jobs, the Nanfang Daily reported yesterday.
One woman said she felt helpless after trying everything to secure a job, and visiting temples was a comfort to her. “We need a blessing from Buddha after sparing no effort at the job fairs. You have to be that lucky to get a job,” she was quoted as saying.
Another graduate said his roommate claimed the reclining Buddha had helped him get a job.
Graduates say companies have stopped recruiting since the start of the financial crisis, and they also have to compete with the large numbers of experienced but laid-off workers.
The daily said well-educated students also bought Buddha statues and incantations from temples to boost their causes.
Staff from Guangzhou temples said more graduates prayed there, many for the first time, for a job during the Lunar New Year. They said that while some young people did not know basic religious protocol, all were deeply worried.
Psychologists said graduates were not visiting the temples out of faith but as a way to ease their anxiety about unemployment. They urged such people to seek counselling.
Authorities estimated more than a million graduates, half of them from other provinces, were vying for jobs in Guangdong. At least 2.5 million graduates across the mainland failed to find work in the past three years.
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